Morgans AM: Thursday, 20 July 2023

US equity markets settled modestly firmer as investors continued to digest second quarter results, including some heavyweight names after the closing bell - Dow up +109-points or +0.31% to 35,061.21, extending its rally into a eighth consecutive session (its longest winning streak in 4-years) and marking the first time that the 30-stock index has settled above 35,000 since 20 April, 2020. The broader S&P500 added +0.24%, with Real Estate (up +1.12%) and Utilities (+1.02%) rising over >1% and leading eight of the eleven primary sectors higher. Materials (down -0.52%) and Information Technology (-0.27%) sat at the foot of the primary sector leaderboard overnight. The Nasdaq inched +0.02% higher. Apple Inc closed 0.71% higher, rising as much as 2.3% earlier in the session after a media report said it was building generative artificial intelligence tools, which could challenge products such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Microsoft Corp fell -1.23% to snap a six session winning streak. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 added +0.45%.